Sunday, August 27, 2006

Do You Judge Men Who Wear Earrings?

What's your response?

This week, I want to examine the question of contextualization in evangelism. That's a forty dollar term meaning simply, "outfitting oneself to match one's evangelistic target group." When you contextualize yourself in a certain setting, you adopt the non-sinful cultural habits of the group in order to connect with them. So a missionary to India might wear traditional Indian garb; an evangelist in Greenwich Village might grow stubble and wear Birkenstocks; a pastor in New Brunswick, Canada might buy some winter fishing gear. All these cultural adaptations signal an attempt to connect with the home culture.

Is this good or bad? Right or wrong? Join me this week as we think this one through.

For today, though, think about it: is it wrong for a Christian man to wear an earring?

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Or how about this: Is it okay for Christians to use "vulgar" language when witnessing to people who speak in such language? E.G. Maybe we should talk about total depravity by saying that people are really f_'ed up. Rau McLaughlin from 3rd Mil ministries (richard Pratt) recently argued for something like this. As far as earrings and men: it would seem to me that one would have to work through paul's discussion of nature and how it's shameful for men to dress like women or wear their hair long (which I take as an application of the former principle). I think Paul would say it's not okay for men to dress like women, though of course what articles of clothing this includes will vary by culture.

Sometimes, the problem with Christians is that we spend more time trying to point out what someone is doing wrong than advancing the Kingdom. The question seems largely insignificant.

Our focus tends to be toward the negative. We forget the fact that someone spends large amount of time in prison ministry, studying the Word, feeding the homeless, clothing the naked only to concern ourselves with a small hole in the earlobe (or numerous holes).

It is no wonder why we have trouble reaching our culture with the Gospel - we prove time and time again that we don't have a clue.

About Me

PhD student in Historical Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Managing Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at TEDS. Married to a woman of noble character, Bethany. Grateful for this life, excited for the next.